Monday, October 29, 2012

Week in Review: October 22

Pick of the Week

This is a very impressive recreation of a unique aircraft. There is also a great "water" (brick) drop feature as this aircraft is used in firefighting. The use of skies for the propellers is well implemented Zorko.huljic offers this design in two scale which is quite helpful for the supporter.

The only issue I can see is that the design uses outdated hinge elements (that I really wish were still avialable). Nothing Lego designers can't handle though.

Honorable Mentions

Week of Cuusoo

I don't usually go for Modulars (I got to stop saying that) but this one is just so lovely with the Autumn color scheme. One of the unusual things about Cuusoo is that though a certain level of support can be garnered by current events the sets themselves can take ages to come about...fortunately every year has an Autumn.

There is an elevator mechanic: video here. The mechanic is even more impressive when you realize that the floors come apart.

This is an impressive looking building, front and back and the dome is well implemented. I would be much more forgiving to it if it was not specifically the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

To me though it fails to capture the grandeur of the Museum. I see this being half way in between two states and thus failing to achieve greatness in either. The full scale of the Museum could only be captures in "architecture" scale (or a mind boggling modular). The Modular displayed would imply that the internals would be worthy of the Museum but those are mostly taken up by empty floor space and an elevator.

This is certainly an interesting concept. Reekardoo has done an great job with the chairs but chairs are always a problem for Lego. They always demonstrate that figures lack knees. So, this chairs look enormous. I mean, they look great, but the chair on the left is suppose to have Anakin or Mace Windu. If you were to picture the fig as person you can see they would have to climb into that chair. Its more of a lounge at that state.

Again, to be clear, I think the designs are excellent. If anything I am talking to my frustration for designing aesthetically pleasing or logically consistent designs around the minifig leg design.